Last week, when most mainstream media was in the middle of yet another paroxysmal bout of Islamophobia over a thirteen-year-old child’s wish to wear the hijab to school, I was thinking: why is hijabophobia the most acceptable manifestation of the hatred of Islam in Kerala? Why is it that it seems to provoke many non-Muslim women to the point of anti-Muslim hysteria?
Continue reading Rotting Civil Society, Mounting Insecurity: Understanding Hijabophobia in KeralaCategory Archives: Islamophobia
Lady Shri Ram College Students’ Union statement on former diplomat’s remarks
LSR graduates express outrage at former diplomat’s comments at the college
Over 500 graduates of Lady Shri Ram College (University of Delhi), released a statement of outrage at the communal and misogynist statements of former IFS officer Deepak Vohra at an event held at the college on September 11, 2025
The statement and full list of signatories is below.
As proud alumnae of Lady Shri Ram College across the globe, we condemn the recent episode concerning Deepak Vohra in the strongest possible terms and call upon the college, and its senior management to explain how this came to happen.
This week, Lady Shri Ram College invited a retired diplomat Deepak Vohra, who freely articulated misogynist and communal views without being challenged at a lecture on college premises. He made openly anti-Muslim comments, told the young women in the audience that their roles were primarily that of mothers of future citizens, directed wholly inappropriate remarks to the principal of the college from the stage thereby insulting also the institution she heads. And yet, there was no censure or objection expressed at the event itself and students were not even allowed to walk out in protest.
Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) is not simply an undergraduate women’s college, it stands for a vision of a world in which women have space to explore their interests and capabilities and rests on the legacy of a newly democratic India that chose to make world class higher education accessible to women from a diversity of backgrounds. LSR as an institution exists to actively enable such a vision. Despite the deeply patriarchal contexts many students come from, LSR gives them the space to experiment with ideas, explore freedoms, be inspired by other women, all outside the constant censorious gaze of men. The teaching in the classroom has always been of an excellent standard, and outside it, there are a host of enrichment activities that makes an LSR education the well-rounded experience it should be. Continue reading LSR graduates express outrage at former diplomat’s comments at the college
Genocide in Gaza – All the Perfumes of Arabia Will Not Sweeten These Hands…
As the ongoing livestreamed genocide in Gaza reaches its most despicable and horrendous phase of killing masses people through forced starvation, I am posting here a piece that I wrote for the art journal Art Deal last year. It was also delivered as a talk in a discussion organized by the All India Students’ Association (AISA) in JNU in September 2024. I am publishing it here with some minor additions/ changes.
‘Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza’s economy “on the brink of collapse” while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by a Norwegian daily on Wednesday.
Three cables cited by the Aftenposten newspaper, which has said it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks, showed that Israel kept the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv briefed on its internationally criticized blockade of the Gaza Strip.’
– Reuters, 5 January, 2011, Jerusalem.
I
No, it did not begin on 7 October 2023. Notwithstanding all the gaslighting by Israel and its guardians and arms-suppliers in the USA and Europe, the evidence says something else. The US cables leaked to Wikileaks show that not only had Israel been carrying out its genocidal activities for a very long time, its sponsors in the USA knew everything all along.
Continue reading Genocide in Gaza – All the Perfumes of Arabia Will Not Sweeten These Hands…Conversations on Palestine: Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi
Conversations on Palestine with an activist, a poet, a scholar
Teredide Mane O Baa Athithi (Come in, I have opened my doors dear guest) is an offshoot of Mere Ghar Aakar Toh Dekho, a national campaign in India, in Karnataka. It aims to counter the forces of hate, bigotry and polarization that have gained ground in the country by redrawing boundaries and expanding notions of trust and community. The campaign involves participants from diverse backgrounds opening their own homes and hearts to guests from equally varied locations. Teredide Mane has grown as a community, learning and unlearning through practice the concepts of guest and host, home and house, consent and comfort, celebration and sharing, listening and observing—both commonalities and diversity. [Content and editing by Madhu Bhushan, Winnu and Anita Cheria. Illustrations and design by Winnu]
We invite you into this moving and powerful conversation that has been reproduced largely in the speakers’ own words, and hope that you will add to it and take it forward. Read the whole conversation here (https://shorturl.at/JzvI5). Or a shorter note on the conversation here (https://shorturl.at/NkLHz).
Over the past months, the genocide in Palestine has come up multiple times in our meetings. Apart from engaging in acts of protest and solidarity, there was a need to go beyond ‘news noise’, and meet people engaged with and from Palestine. We decided to create a virtual space, one that was safe and intimate, to be able listen deeply to friends we had connected with in the course of our work and life journeys. This conversation, with Lisa Suhair Majaj, Smadar Lavie and Issa Samander in October, 2024, came about as a result of this intention.
Lisa Suhair Majaj is a passionate Palestinian American poet whose writings and poetry echo with the spirit of the land and people that she was herself exiled and alienated from.
Continue reading Conversations on Palestine: Teredide Mane O Baa AthithiWill Asjad Babu Get Justice in Today’s India
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them”
– George Elliot (English Novelist and Poet, 1819-1880)
Firdaus Alam alias Asjad Babu – age 24 years – is dead.
Details of this cold blooded killing have appeared in a section of the media and make chilling reading. (1)
Asjad – a native of a village in Kishenganj district of Bihar, married hardly 7 months back, worked as a tailor in Panipat, Haryana.That tragic evening, he was sitting with his friends including his brother Asad Raza in a playground when the accused approached him and started mocking him for wearing a skullcap.
None of the friends had any personal enmity with the accused Narendra alias “Susu Lala”.When confronted, he felt further agitated and attacked Asjad with a knife, inflicting serious fatal injuries.
Death of Asjad is no ordinary death.
It appears to be a hate crime.
Hate crime is a special crime where a person is targeted just because of hostility or prejudice towards that person’s colour, look, dress, which reveals the person’s community, religion or belief etc. One does not know whether the police or the law-and-order machinery would be ready to acknowledge this brutal murder as a hate crime (2) because that would entail stricter charges, which may be followed by stricter punishment.
What is even more disturbing, is to note that killings, like that of Asjad have become commonplace. ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/06/will-asjad-babu-get-justice-in-todays-india/)
Two Minute Silence for Amir Pathan!
Life in Latur, a city in Maharashtra, known for its historical monuments is normal again. There was little commotion more than ten days back in one part of the city following the suicide of a senior executive with a telecom company who had resorted to this extreme step a day after a road rage incident when he allegedly faced communal slurs. Looking back what followed on that day was nothing unusual by Indian standards. ( Read the rest of the article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/05/two-minute-silence-for-amir-pathan/)
””””””””””””””
Is an All-India Plan Underway to Foment Communal Conflicts?
President Rajendra Prasad had written to Sardar Patel, flagging cases of Hindutva activists dressing as Muslims to foment communal trouble. That trend continues.
“…I am told Hindutva activists have a plan of creating trouble. They have got a number of them dressed as Muslims and looking like Muslims who are to create trouble with the Hindus by attacking them.. …The result of this kind of trouble amongst the Hindus and Muslims will be to create a conflagration.’’
[Extracts of a letter, written by Dr Rajendra Prasad on March 14, 1948, cited in Nehru-Patel: Agreement within Differences, Select Documents and Correspondence, edited by Neerja Singh, Page 43]
‘How Hindutva activists plan to foment communal trouble?’
It was the year 1948 and Dr Rajendra Prasad, who later became the first President of India, wrote a letter to the first Home Minister of independent India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, about the plan of Hindutva activists to foment trouble in the newly independent country. As per reports that he had received from different sources, Prasad wrote how these Hindutva supremacists get dressed up as Muslims and ‘looking like Muslims’ create trouble with Hindus by attacking them.’
Much time has passed since the time letter was written, but every now and then, this template, created and developed by Hindutva Supremacist formations during the Partition violence and later, is active with the aim to communalise and polarise the society further. [ Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/all-india-plan-underway-foment-communal-conflicts]
We are No One – নির্বাচনের প্রাক্কালে পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুসলমান : Sadique Hossain
Guest Post by SADIQUE HOSSAIN
[The following post by writer Sadique Hossain highlights the way in which with approaching state elections, Bengal’s Muslims are being increasing forced into silence, as contending political parties, especially the CPI(M) and the TMC, stake out their respective agendas. While the stance of all parties is telling, that of the Left is particularly myopic, argues Hossian. AN ]
2026-এ পশ্চিমবঙ্গে বিধান সভার নির্বাচন হতে চলেছে৷ বাকি প্রায় দশ মাস৷ কিন্তু এখন থেকেই মুখ্য দলগুলো তাদের ন্যারেটিভ কী হতে পারে – তা প্রায় স্পষ্ট করে দিয়েছে৷ তারা দৃশ্যত রমজান মাসটিকেই বেছে নিয়েছিল ভোটের দামামা বাজানোর কাজে৷
ইদের কিছুদিন আগে সেটা শুরু হল বিজেপির বিধায়ক শুভেন্দু অধিকারীকে দিয়ে৷ তিনি বিধানসভার বাইরে ঘোষণা করলেন – বিজেপি ক্ষমতায় এলে তৃণমূল থেকে নির্বাচিত মুসলিম বিধায়কদের চ্যাঙদোলা করে রাস্তায় ছুঁড়ে ফেলবেন৷ তাঁর বক্তব্য ধ্বনিত হতে থাকল বিজেপির অন্যান্য বিধায়কদের গলাতেও৷ ইদের পরেই রামনবমী ছিল৷ মাঝখানে ওয়াকফ বিল পাশ হয়ে গেল লোকসভা আর রাজ্যসভাতেও৷ এরমধ্যে তৃণমূলের হুমায়ুন কবীর শুভেন্দুর কথার প্রেক্ষিতে বললেন শুভেন্দুকে মুর্শিদাবাদে ঢুকতে দেওয়া হবে না৷ এমনকি জোর করে মুর্শিদাবাদে ঢুকতে এলে, দাঙ্গা বাধাতে এলে ভাগীরথের জলে ভাসিয়ে দেওয়া হবে৷ এক্ষেত্রে তৃণমূল অবশ্য তাঁকে থামাতে দেরি করল না৷ শো-কজ করা হল৷ এবং হুমায়ুন কবীর প্রথমদিকে ফোঁসফোঁস করলেও পরবর্তীতে চুপ করে গেলেন৷
Continue reading We are No One – নির্বাচনের প্রাক্কালে পশ্চিমবঙ্গের মুসলমান : Sadique HossainWHO CAN HATE THE ‘OTHER’ MORE!
CLASH OF TITANS ! REALLY ?
Aisha, a 7 year old girl living in Khajuri Khas Colony of Delhi, is yearning for a day when like her elder sister Asma, she would also be admitted to a nearby government school.(1)
This possibility is growing dimmer by the day, as the school has refused her admission and asked for Indian documents like Aadhar – which refugees do not possess.
Aisha is the younger daughter of Ahmad, a Rohingya refugee who has finally reached Delhi and has duly received his UNHCR card – which refers to the document issued by the UN refugee agency.
Thanks to the circular issued by Delhi government ( Dec 24) led by AAP asking schools to ensure strict guidelines during admissions perhaps Aisha will have to remain satisfied with the same private school which lacks facilities.With a drive underway to ensure that children of “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” are not allowed enrolment, Aisha knows very well that her fate is sealed. (2)
It is difficult for her father to explain that while Asma got admission on the UNHCR card but why the rules have been suddenly changed ? ( Read the full article here : https://countercurrents.org/2025/02/clash-of-titans-really-who-can-hate-the-other-more/)
Road to Kumbh: Paved With Hindu Rashtra Intentions?
The Mahakumbh has provided Hindu Supremacist forces an opportunity to further marginalise and invisibilise Muslims, and further push for a ‘Hindu Constitution’.
Whether Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will be able to recover his image after the tragedy at Mahakumbh, which officially killed more than 30 people and wounded many, many more, is a question being raised in hushed voices in the corridors of power in Delhi.
Obviously, questions are also being raised about the great hiatus between the massive propaganda undertaken around the Mahakumbh and the level of preparations for this ‘biggest congregation on earth’….
For Chief Minister Adityanath, who had ‘positioned himself as the ‘host of the biggest congregation on earth’, the path ahead looks challenging, with the tremendous ineptness of the administration led by him on full display. Much has been reported about conscious attempts made allegedly to downplay the tragedy and how it continued for the whole day. A UP minister, supposed to be close to the Chief Minister, even made a controversial statement that “such small events keep happening in large gatherings.” The statement caused so much uproar that he had to issue an apology. The mainstream media added another page of shame to its track record when it continued to publish government handouts, and did not even deem it necessary to report the tragedy. ( Read the full article here : https://www.newsclick.in/road-kumbh-paved-hindu-rashtra-intentions)
REJECT CAA-NRC – REJECT NATIONALIST XENOPHOBIA – REJECT DETENTION CENTRES: Hasratein A Queer Collective
Guest post by HASRATEIN : A QUEER COLLECTIVE
On 11 March 2024, four years after the passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, the BJP government notified the CAA rules. Continuing their symbolic violence in creating a Hindu Rashtra, the notification came at the beginning of the month of Ramadan, held to be holy by Muslims across the world. As part of their election agenda, this marks another step to consolidate the Hindu vote bank which has been fed on anti-Muslim proposals and propaganda machines. While CAA apologists are using refugee rhetoric to spread hatred against Muslims in the country, the CAA rules show the bureaucratically stringent proofs demanded (Schedule IA and IB) which will ensure many who attempt to claim citizenship through the Act will be rendered de facto stateless.
CAA 2019 is an amendment to India’s citizenship law that fast tracks citizenship acquisition for non-Muslim minorities of neighboring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. This includes Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and Christians from these three countries. An earlier version of the bill with this logic was passed by Lok Sabha in 2016 but did not get cleared by Rajya Sabha. The Act introduces anti-secular provision by making religion a criterion in citizenship acquisition. CAA 2019 fulfills many agendas of Hindu nationalism at the same time. Continue reading REJECT CAA-NRC – REJECT NATIONALIST XENOPHOBIA – REJECT DETENTION CENTRES: Hasratein A Queer Collective
‘Cultural Marxism’: What Links Mohan Bhagwat and the ‘New Age Chain of White Terrorism’?
‘It was Norwegian far-right terrorist Anders Breivik, who killed over seventy people in a car bombing and mass shooting of children in 2011, who first brought the term “Cultural Marxism” to the world’s attention in his thousand-some paged statement of belief, which focused almost entirely on the concept.’ (Joan Braune, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Frankfurt School – “Cultural Marxism” as an Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory’, Journal of Social Justice, Vol. 9, 2019: 2)
The ideology of Hindu supremacism is going global. Last Vijaya Dashami the RSS supremo Mohan Bhagwat had waxed eloquent on a new enemy, imported directly from White supremacist terrorist discourse, namely ‘Cultural Marxism’. The term is a New Right invention that has nothing to do with any specific tendency, Marxist or otherwise. It is the name of a right-wing conspiracy theory that blames all the different claims being made today as threatening to ‘traditional family values’ (read patriarchy) and to ‘traditional ways of living’ of the Whites, now threatened by growing demands of equality and multiculturalism from various quarters. As the quote above states, this term was first brought to the world’s attention by a mass murderer who killed 77 people in Norway some thirteen years ago. According to Paul Rosenberg, Brevik had used the term ‘cultural Marxists’ or ‘cultural Marxism’ 600 times in his 1500-plus page manifesto.
Continue reading ‘Cultural Marxism’: What Links Mohan Bhagwat and the ‘New Age Chain of White Terrorism’?Empowered to Death? Tales of Empowerment and Death from Kerala
Last month, on the 21st of January 2024, a young woman, an assistant public prosecutor at a lower court in the district of Kollam in Kerala, took her own life, after sending out one last desperate plea — calling for justice after her death at least. She revealed through audio clips that fighting for justice at her workplace had worn her out completely. Her words brought out the rot infecting the institution of public prosecution (the stench of it is very much in the air, actually, unbearable it has become, though our political leaders and social justice motormouths seem to largely ignore it).
Continue reading Empowered to Death? Tales of Empowerment and Death from Keralaउत्तराखंड महिला समूहों का बयान उत्तराखंड समान नागरिक संहिता (यूसीसी ड्राफ्ट बिल)
समान नागरिक संहिता के विधेयक के मसौदे पर उत्तराखंड महिला समूहों का यह बयान हम यहाँ छाप रहे हैं ताकि इस ख़तरनाक़ बिल पर और बहस हो सके।
6 फरवरी 2024
उत्तराखंड महिला समूह और प्रतिनिधि राज्य विधानसभा में पेश किए गए इस विधेयक को पूरी तरह से खारिज करते हैं।
- संवैधानिक व्यवहार को अपराध बनाने वाला, नैतिक पुलिसिंग का परिचय देने वाला विधेयक अस्वीकार्य है।
- प्रस्तुत हिंदूकृत समान संहिता विधेयक का एजेंडा सभी वर्गों के परिवारों में असमानताओं को दूर करना नहीं है, बल्कि मुस्लिम अल्पसंख्यक और वयस्कों के स्वायत्त व्यवहार को अपराधी बनाना है।
- मांग करें कि यह स्थायी समिति के पास जाए।
Uttarakhand Women’s Groups’ Statement on the Uttarakhand UCC Draft Bill
[We are publishing this response of the Uttarakhand Women’s Groups to the Uttarakhand Draft for initiating further debate.]
- The Uttarakhand women’s groups and representatives reject this Bill in toto, in the form introduced in the State Assembly.
- A Bill criminalizing constitutional behaviour, and introducing moral policing is unacceptable.
- The Bill which is predominantly a cut paste from the Hindu family laws, does not remove inequalities in family across the spectrum of religious and secular laws, but criminalises the Muslim minority and autonomous, consensual behaviour of adults.
- Demands that it is sent to the Standing Committee for further deliberations.
The Gaza Siege and Need for Subaltern Internationalism – Going Beyond Hanukkah of Uncle Sam: Maya John
Guest post by MAYA JOHN
Herodotus, widely considered as the father of history, mentioned the existence of Palaistinê between Phoenicia and Egypt, and still failed to condemn Hamas. Damn all historians! – An Anonymous Disappointed Liberal
But you are neither a Palestinian nor a Muslim. Why put yourself out there in this climate? – An Anonymous Sanctimonious Liberal
When I look at the partition of Palestine in 1947 and 1967, the ghost of India and Pakistan rise like smoke from charred buildings of Karachi and Kolkata. – Tithi Bhattacharya (A historian from partitioned Bengal)
The solidarity that is needed today will have to be built primarily by the peoples themselves. Only then can hope be reborn…– Samir Amin (Egyptian-French economist of Marxist persuasion)
On 7 October 2023, the Hamas led an attack on the Gaza envelope, which is part of the southern district of Israel, killing reportedly 1200 people. The Hamas is a political and military organization governing the Gaza Strip of Palestinian territories that are under occupation by Israel. Many considered the military incursions of 7 October as an outright terrorist attack on civilians. Yet, others called this a ‘jail-break’ in terms of a reaction to Palestinian people bearing the burden of around seventy-five years of displacement, apartheid, surveillance, and endless other atrocities. Majority of inhabitants in the Gaza Strip are descendants of refugees who were displaced from the region which became Israel after the 1948 Arab–Israeli War. Nearly two million Palestinians have been notoriously cornered into this densely populated enclave where their movement has been severely restricted, and food, water and electricity supply has been controlled by the Israeli government; making such habitation the largest open-air jail in the world. After this attack, the Israeli military has launched a disproportionately brutal retaliation, resulting in massive suffering and a mounting death toll.
Some, of course, seek to rationalize the ensuing Israeli-Palestinian conflict by drawing on the belief that Israelis are the original inhabitants of this region and have suffered two millennia of exodus, and that they have the right to return and settle in what is considered as the ‘promised land’ as per the Biblical belief. Others consider that Israel is a settlers colony, and that Palestinians have all the rights to recover their country. Not so long back, the compromises of the Oslo Accords were thought to be a way forward in settling the crisis by creating two states, within which Israelis and Palestinians would achieve the long-lost peace in the region. Yet, such peace has failed to materialize. In the context of rising Islamophobia, conservative popular opinion asserts that the lack of peace in the region is due to a longer history of religious strife and supposed Muslim bigotry. Needless to say, history is more complex.
Continue reading The Gaza Siege and Need for Subaltern Internationalism – Going Beyond Hanukkah of Uncle Sam: Maya JohnAcademics in India condemn restrictions on academic freedom related to Palestine
As academics and other concerned persons, we, the undersigned, are outraged at the manner in which discussions on the ongoing war against Palestine are being silenced on Indian campuses, and in the public sphere more broadly. We are issuing this statement to call upon university administrators and the government to respect our academic freedom. We would also like to remind everyone of India’s own long history of anti-colonial struggle which has historically provided the lens through which the Palestinian struggle for self-determination, equality and human rights has been viewed in India.
We object to the way in which any discussion of the historical context of the occupation of Palestine and the barbaric Israeli assault on Gaza, along with the denial of food, fuel and water, since October 7th 2023, is being projected as support for the brutal terror attack on civilians in Israel by Hamas on October 7th.
We object to the Israeli ambassador’s interference with academic freedom on Indian campuses. This disrespects the competence of Indian scholars to analyze historical and political situations for themselves. Continue reading Academics in India condemn restrictions on academic freedom related to Palestine
Diwali in times of War against Children
Diwali, or Deepavali as it is called in the south, is a joyous occasion but this time it has brought only tears. What a bizarre Deepavali it is this year, with the awful blazing fires in the sky and the earth, with ear-splitting sound from non-stop bombing. I may not be in Gaza, but my mind refuses to leave the place and my very soul shudders each moment.
Continue reading Diwali in times of War against ChildrenPalestine lives! (But do you condemn Hamas?)
This post is based on a presentation at a panel discussion on “Israeli war against Palestinian people in Gaza” organised by Janhastakshep in Delhi on October 20, 2023.
Palestine solidarity protest in Bangalore
But do you condemn…
We are expected to begin every discussion on the latest phase of the ferocious 75 year old war Israel has been waging on the Palestinian people, by answering the question – “But do you condemn the Hamas action?”
Sometimes, because stronger words are needed, they say “dastardly” Hamas action, as a television anchor recently did, trying to push Palestinian writer Susan Abul Hawa to place on Hamas the responsibility for the ongoing “humanitarian crisis” She did not. Nor did she accept the banal term humanitarian crisis, terming it instead, an intentional genocidal war.
This belligerent question comes from beginning with “secondly”, as the Palestinian poet Mourid Barghouti said –
“If you want to dispossess a people, the simplest way to do it is to tell their story, starting with ‘secondly’ “.
“Jerusalem is my city” by the artist Heba Zagout, killed by Israeli bombardment in Gaza along with two of her children, in October 2023
Continue reading Palestine lives! (But do you condemn Hamas?)
The Body Politic of Family Loyalty :’Kerala ‘ at the IAWS Conference, Thiruvananthapuram
An unlikely phantom seemed to hover over me as I hung around the Government Women’s College at Thiruvananthapuram where this year’s Annual Conference of Indian Association of Women’s Studies was on last week. ‘Unlikely’, because the conference is usually a platform in which this spectre is thoroughly examined, counted, listened upon, critiqued, reimagined etc etc — and therefore one would imagine that it would not dare to tread in in such spaces.
Continue reading The Body Politic of Family Loyalty :’Kerala ‘ at the IAWS Conference, Thiruvananthapuram
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 